For leg five of the Volvo Ocean Race, 4450 nautical miles from Rio de Janeiro to Miami, Assa Abloy Racing Team had planned only one crew change, bringing back Chris Larson from the USA, who sailed with the team on their victorious leg from Sydney to Auckland, winning the CYCA Sydney Hobart race en route. But now, in an unscheduled move, they must replace their Spanish crewmember, Guillermo Altadill, who returns home for family reasons. In his place, the team has brought on Mikey Howard, or Big Mike as many people know him. Skipper Neal McDonald says Big Mike is a very experienced sailor, as well as being good fun and very fit, and he is confident that Mikey will be a great addition to the team.

"Chris Larson was not able to do the last leg, he had commitments in America for sailing" explains McDonald. "His return is much looked forward to. Guillermo has had more family problems. He really hasn't had an easy race and certainly for this leg he won't be able to come with us, which means we have to do an unplanned change."

McDonald will miss the wealth of experience provided by Guillermo. "He was a huge asset for us in the Southern Ocean this time, he's done an awful lot of sailing down there and I've been down there with him myself a few times. He's been with the campaign a long time, he's helped develop the sail programme. He's a good guy so he will be sadly missed. We are keeping an open mind and hoping that things will allow him to come back."

But, Big Mike, has plenty of skills to offer. McDonald says he will bring new thoughts on crew maneuvers, new blood and more power. Mikey has done a lot of big boat racing and sailed onboard Sayonara in the 1998 Sydney to Hobart race where they did so well to get there in such good shape. Although it was an unplanned crew change, McDonald is confident that it will go very smoothly.

Jason Carrington will also be back onboard Assa Abloy for this leg after making a good recovery from the illness that left him unconscious and worried during leg three from Sydney to Auckland.

"It's never nice to be sick on a boat and, when it happens quite quickly like that, it is a bit of a shock" explains a now fit and healthy Carrington. "It was very much brought on by being pretty stressed in Sydney, trying to get the boat together and leaving there tired. Then the Hobart was tough and we had the three-hour pit-stop and then were off again, which made it extremely tough. About 24 hours after Hobart I felt very run down and I started feeling a bit giddy. I told the guys I wasn't feeling right and then, about 10 minutes after that, I collapsed and went into shock, shaking and passing out and coming around." Of course getting sick is always horrible, but being ill on a race boat is unimaginable as well as frightening. "The worse thing about it" says Carrington "is that the watch system breaks down and you feel so hopeless. You feel you are letting everybody down and there's nothing you can do about it. Mickey Joubert, the other bowman, for example, had to do every single sail change, so he was doing double shifts the whole time. Although he could go down below, he was fully kitted-up, lying in the bilge ready to go, and I was in his bunk and it was horrible - it just felt terrible. That was the worst part of it." Carrington is now in Rio, running every day and in great shape. His team is pleased to have him back.

Neal McDonald is the man in charge, onboard Assa Abloy. McDonald, whose wife Lisa is the skipper of the all female team sailing Amer Sports Too, is the British sailor who took over as skipper of Assa Abloy from Roy Heiner in Cape Town. He has now completed three legs of the Volvo Ocean Race as the man in charge. He says he's enjoying parts of his new role, but like any job, there are good and bad aspects. "It's pretty intense" he explains. "It's difficult, you can't just relax and just say 'this is fantastic, what a lovely day's sailing' - it's never really quite like that. The intensity of the competition works both ways. Sometimes it is thrilling and fantastic, and some times it is downright disappointing. Of course those two feelings are pretty directly proportional to where you are in the fleet at the time".

Assa Abloy will start leg five to Miami on Saturday feeling confident and strong and definitely looking for another place on the podium.

Tom Burton (AUS) and Alison Young (GBR) hit the right note in the Laser and Laser Radial at ISAF Sailing World Cup Melbourne as they took out the top honours and qualification spots to the 2015 ISAF Sailing World Cup Final.

It was double Australian gold in the Paralympic classes. Matt Bugg (AUS) came out on top in the 2.4mR whilst London 2012 Paralympic SKUD18 gold medallists Dan Fitzgibbon and Liesl Tesch (AUS) were triumphant in the two person keelboat.

Lithuania's Juozas Bernotas came out on top in the Men's RS:X whilst Russia's Stefania Elfutina was triumphant in the Women's RS:X. Both sailors claim the first Abu Dhabi ISAF Sailing World Cup Final spots whilst Jock Calvert (AUS) and Joanna Sterling (AUS) picked up the Oceanic spots for the Emirati finale.

There was some fast paced action in the 49er and 49erFX Medal Races at ISAF Sailing World Cup Melbourne as Nathan Outteridge & Iain Jensen (AUS) and Maia & Ragna Agerup (NOR) claimed the honours and Abu Dhabi final spots.

A tight group of five young Papua New Guinean (PNG) Laser sailors are stepping up their 2015 Pacific Games competition program using this week's ISAF Sailing World Cup Melbourne. PNG is one of 33 countries represented at the important Oceanic event, the largest Olympic sailing regatta in the southern hemisphere.

Melbourne, Australia will host the final Rio 2016 Paralympic Games qualification regatta in 2015. With just under one year until the event, the 2015 IFDS Worlds was launched at ISAF Sailing World Cup Melbourne.

ISAF Sailing World Cup Melbourne kick starts the journey to the 2015 ISAF Sailing World Cup Final in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates with qualification spots and top ranking points available in the Australian city.

Four boats in the Volvo Ocean Race celebrated rounding the venerated landmark of Cape Horn on Monday, a pleasure cruelly denied Dongfeng Race Team (Charles Caudrelier/FRA) after the Chinese boat's mast was broken early in a dramatic day on Leg 5.

The wind played dirty tricks all day in Palma on the sailors and race committees who had to juggle with big shifts and different pressure. From 4 to 20 knots, and reaching 40 in some gusts, the wind turned around the bay playing with everybody's nerves.

Ghosting across the line in the inky blackness of a Mediterranean spring night, finally slicing through the finish line set on the very waters where some 40 odd years ago he cut his teeth as a young, aspiring sailor harbouring great dreams, at 01:47:00hrs local time Guillermo Altadill and his talented, ever reliable Chilean co-skipper Jose Muñoz secured second placed in this third edition of the Barcelona World Race, the round the world race for two crew which left the Catalan capital on December 31st 2014.

Algoa Bay brought lighter conditions on Sunday, and after a postponement waiting for the wind to settle, the race got underway in 7 knots of breeze from the south-east. Ted Conrads and Brian Haines from the USA were the pathfinders, and opened up the gate for the fleet as they sailed out to the right-hand side of the course.